This book is both a plea and an invitation to consider climate change from a multi-faceted perspective, taking into account (geo)physical, social, cultural, psychological, religious, mythological, economic, and judicial viewpoints, among others. As such, it will serve as a useful and necessary guide towards a better understanding of our own mental structures and systems of preferences, ideologies, or beliefs.

This book contains reflections about climate change - an intrinsic reality of our planet’s history over the past 4.6 billion years – including both natural and anthropogenic variations. More recently, the phrase “climate change” has become a euphemism for “carbon dioxide emissions”. While focusing on CO2 emissions is crucial for understanding climate change, solely using this term in scientific discussions may lead to overlooking other complex factors contributing, among other things, to extreme weather events, potentially affecting the quality of evidence analysis. The shift towards using “climate change” interchangeably with “carbon dioxide emissions” within scientific circles, while highlighting a key driver, necessitates ensuring comprehensive discussions that encompass the diverse evidence related to all climate sub-systems. Therefore, using the phrase like a changing climate opens a bigger umbrella that facilitates covering multiple and complex climate manifestations. The book will be useful to students, researchers and policy makers working and studying in the vast and often contentious landscape of climate change debates.

This comprehensively updated third edition explores the nature and role of environmental management and offers an introduction to this rapidly expanding and changing field. It focuses on challenges and opportunities, and core concepts including sustainable development. The book is divided into five parts: Part I (Introduction to Environmental Management): four introductory chapters cover the justification for environmental management, its theory, scope, goals and scientific background Part II (Practice): explores environmental management in economics, law and business and environmental management’s relation with environmentalism, international agreements and monitoring Part III (Global Challenges and Opportunities): examines resources, challenges and opportunities, both natural and human-caused or human-aggravated Part IV (Responses to Global Challenges and Opportunities): explores mitigation, vulnerability, resilience, adaptation and how technology, social change and politics affect responses to challenges Part V (The Future): the final chapter considers the way ahead for environmental management in the future. With its well-structured coverage, effective illustrations and foundation for further, more-focused interest, this book is easily accessible to all. It is an essential reference for undergraduates and postgraduates studying environmental management and sustainability, and an important resource for many students on courses including environmental science, environmental studies and human geography.

Choosing the Right College is the most in-depth, independently researched college guide on the market, and the only source for students and parents who want the unvarnished truth about America’s top colleges and universities. Updated and expanded, Choosing the Right College 2012-13 features incisive essays, telling statistics, and revealing sidebars on 140 schools—Ivy League institutions, state universities, liberal arts colleges, religious schools, military academies, and lesser-known schools worth a careful look. Here you’ll discover information you can’t get anywhere else about the intellectual, political, and social conditions at each institution, including: •Insider tips on the best—and worst—departments, courses, and professors •The statistics that colleges don’t want you to know •A unique “traffic light” feature—red, yellow, or green—that reveals the state of intellectual freedom and the extent of political correctness on campus •The truth about day-to-day student life: the social scene, living arrangements, campus safety, clubs, sports, traditions, and much more •A roadmap for getting a real education at any school, whether a huge state university or a tiny liberal arts college •Essential financial information, including the extent of need-based financial aid and the average student-debt load of graduates •The most overpriced colleges—and the good values you don’t know about "Practically every aspect of university life that a potential student would want to investigate can be found within these pages.”—THOMAS E. WOODS JR., Ph.D., bestselling author of Meltdown

In the year 2000, approximately one million people died from suicide: a "global" mortality rate of 16 per 100,000, or one death every 40 seconds. In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 years (both sexes); these figures do not include suicide attempts up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicide. Suicide worldwide is estimated to represent 1.8% of the total global burden of disease in1998, and 2.4% in countries with market and former socialist economies in 2020. Although traditionally suicide rates have been highest among the male elderly, rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of countries, in both developed and developing countries. Mental disorders (particularly depression and substance abuse) are associated with more than 90% of all cases of suicide; however, suicide results from many complex sociocultural factors and is more likely to occur particularly during periods of socioeconomic, family and individual crisis situations (e.g., loss of a loved one, employment, honour). The economic costs associated with completed and attempted suicide are estimated to be in the billions of dollars. One million lives lost each year are more than those lost from wars and murder annually in the world. It is three times the catastrophic loss of life in the tsunami disaster in Asia in 2005. Every day of the year, the number of suicides is equivalent to the number of lives lost in the attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers on 9/11 in 2001. Everyone should be aware of the warning signs for suicide: Someone threatening to hurt or kill him/herself, or taking of wanting to hurt or kill him/herself; someone looking for ways to kill him/herself by seeking access to firearms, available pills, or other means; someone talking or writing about death, dying or suicide, when these actions are out of the ordinary for the person. Also, high risk of suicide is generally associated with hopelessness; rage, uncontrolled anger, seeking revenge; acting reckless or engaging in risky activities, seemingly without thinking; feeling trapped – like there’s no way out; increased alcohol or drug use; withdrawing from friends, family and society, anxiety, agitation, unable to sleep or sleeping all the time; dramatic mood changes; no reason for living; no sense of purpose in life. Table 1: Understanding and helping the suicidal individual should be a task for all. Suicide Myths How to Help the Suicidal Person Warning Sights of Suicide Myth: Suicidal people just want to die. Fact: Most of the time, suicidal people are torn between wanting to die and wanting to live. Most suicidal individuals don’t want death; they just want to stoop the great psychological or emotional pain they are experiencing -Listen; -Accept the person’s feelings as they are; -Do not be afraid to talk about suicide directly -Ask them if they developed a plan of suicide; -Expressing suicidal feelings or bringing up the topic of suicide; -Giving away prized possessions settling affairs, making out a will; -Signs of depression: loss of pleasure, sad mood, alterations in sleeping/eating patterns, feelings of hopelessness; Myth: People who commit suicide do not warn others. Fact: Eight out of every 10 people who kill themselves give definite clues to their intentions. They leave numerous clues and warnings to others, although clues may be non-verbal of difficult to detect. -Remove lethal means for suicide from person’s home -Remind the person that depressed feelings do change with time; -Point out when death is chosen, it is irreversible; -Change of behavior (poor work or school performance) -Risk-taking behaviors -Increased use of alcohol or drugs -Social isolation -Developing a specific plan for suicide Myth: People who talk about suicide are only trying to get attention. They won’t really do it. Fact: Few commit suicide without first letting someone know how they feel. Those who are considering suicide give clues and warnings as a cry for help. Over 70% who do threaten to commit suicide either make an attempt or complete the act. -Express your concern for the person; -Develop a plan for help with the person; -Seek outside emergency intervention at a hospital, mental health clinic or call a suicide prevention center Myth: Don’t mention suicide to someone who’s showing signs of depression. It will plant the idea in their minds and they will act on it. Fact: Many depressed people have already considered suicide as an option. Discussing it openly helps the suicidal person sort through the problems and generally provides a sense of relief and understanding. Suicide is preventable. Most suicidal individuals desperately want to live; they are just unable to see alternatives to their problems. Most suicidal individuals give definite warnings of their suicidal intentions, but others are either unaware of the significance of these warnings or do not know how to respond to them. Talking about suicide does not cause someone to be suicidal; on the contrary the individual feel relief and has the opportunity to experience an empathic contact. Suicide profoundly affects individuals, families, workplaces, neighbourhoods and societies. The economic costs associated with suicide and self-inflicted injuries are estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Surviving family members not only suffer the trauma of losing a loved one to suicide, and may themselves be at higher risk for suicide and emotional problems. Mental pain is the basic ingredient of suicide. Edwin Shneidman calls such pain “psychache” [1], meaning an ache in the psyche. Shneidman suggested that the key questions to ask a suicidal person are ‘Where do you hurt?’ and ‘How may I help you?’. If the function of suicide is to put a stop to an unbearable flow of painful consciousness, then it follows that the clinician’s main task is to mollify that pain. Shneidman (1) also pointed out that the main sources of psychological pain, such as shame, guilt, rage, loneliness, hopelessness and so forth, stem from frustrated or thwarted psychological needs. These psychological needs include the need for achievement, for affiliation, for autonomy, for counteraction, for exhibition, for nurturance, for order and for understanding. Shneidman [2], who is considered the father of suicidology, has proposed the following definition of suicide: ‘Currently in the Western world, suicide is a conscious act of self-induced annihilation, best understood as a multidimensional malaise in a needful individual who defines an issue for which the suicide is perceived as the best solution’. Shneidman has also suggested that ‘that suicide is best understood not so much as a movement toward death as it is a movement away from something and that something is always the same: intolerable emotion, unendurable pain, or unacceptable anguish. Strategies involving restriction of access to common methods of suicide have proved to be effective in reducing suicide rates; however, there is a need to adopt multi-sectoral approaches involving other levels of intervention and activities, such as crisis centers. There is compelling evidence indicating that adequate prevention and treatment of depression, alcohol and substance abuse can reduce suicide rates. School-based interventions involving crisis management, self-esteem enhancement and the development of coping skills and healthy decision making have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of suicide among the youth. Worldwide, the prevention of suicide has not been adequately addressed due to basically a lack of awareness of suicide as a major problem and the taboo in many societies to discuss openly about it. In fact, only a few countries have included prevention of suicide among their priorities. Reliability of suicide certification and reporting is an issue in great need of improvement. It is clear that suicide prevention requires intervention also from outside the health sector and calls for an innovative, comprehensive multi-sectoral approach, including both health and non-health sectors, e.g., education, labour, police, justice, religion, law, politics, the media.

The Truth Agenda explores some of the most famous unexplained mysteries and global cover-ups of recent history. What is the truth about UFOs, pyramids, religious apparitions, psychic phenomena, visions of the future and ancient prophecies, and what is their connection to famous conspiracy theories concerning the Moon landings, 9/11, the New World Order, and claims that the planet is secretly run by a powerful ruling elite? Leading mysteries researcher Andy Thomas pulls the many threads together in an accessible, stimulating and credible overview which suggests that our world may be very different from the picture presented by the establishment. The Truth Agenda shows how we can avoid control manipulations and help to create a more positive future. Why do so many people believe in conspiracy theories, and what is the evidence to support them? What is the basis for the wide belief that we are now in a ‘New Era’ of massive change and consciousness shift? Why is there such huge but officially undeclared interest in paranormal phenomena from authorities and religions? How does all this tie together and explain the agendas of control and surveillance in the West, and what can we do?

Could the Great Pyramid of Giza be a repository of ancient magical knowledge? Or perhaps evidence of a vanished pre–Ice Age civilization? Misinformation and myths have attached themselves to the Egyptian pyramids since ancient Greece and Rome. While many Americans believe that the pyramids were built by aliens, archaeologists understand that the Giza pyramids were built by the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty around 2450 BCE. So why is there such a disconnect between scholarly opinion and the popular view of Egypt? In The Legends of the Pyramids, Jason Colavito takes us back to Late Antique Egypt, where the replacement of polytheism with Christianity gave rise to local efforts to rewrite the stories of Egyptian history in the image of the Bible. When the Arab conquest absorbed Egypt into the Islamic community, these stories then passed into Islamic historiography and reentered the West. Colavito's The Legends of the Pyramids lays open pop culture's view of Egypt in movies, TV shows, popular books, and New Age beliefs, detailing how the hidden history of Egypt has grown alongside the official history of archaeology and Egyptology.

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

This study is a theoretical reconsideration of the concept of the “tragic” combined with detailed analyses of Japanese literary texts. Inspired by contemporary critical discourse (especially the works by such thinkers as Theodor Adorno, Fredric Jameson and Raymond Williams), the author challenges both exotic and postmodern representation of Japanese culture as “the other” of the West. By examining the social backgrounds of artists’ endeavors to create new literary forms, the author unveils a rich tradition of tragic literature that, unlike the dominant local tradition of naturalism, has registered the unbridgeable gap between universal ideals and social values at a particular historical moment.

The fourth edition of this innovative textbook introduces students to the main theories in international relations. It explains and analyzes each theory, allowing students to understand and critically engage with the myths and assumptions behind them. Each theory is illustrated using the example of a popular film. Key features of this textbook include: Discussion of all the main theories: realism and neo-realism, idealism and neo-idealism, liberalism, constructivism, postmodernism, gender, globalization, environmentalism, anarchism A new chapter on anarchism, debt and the Occupy Movement including use of the film, The Hunger Games New chapter brings the textbook up to date with reflections on the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and reactions to it by focusing on the myth this crisis generated, ‘We are the 99%’ Innovative use of narratives from films that students will be familiar with: Lord of the Flies, Independence Day, Wag the Dog, Fatal Attraction, The Truman Show, East is East, Memento, WALL-E and The Hunger Games Accessible and exciting writing style which is well-illustrated with film stills in each chapter, boxed key concepts and guides to further reading. This breakthrough textbook has been designed to unravel the complexities of international relations theory in a way that gives students a clearer idea of how the theories work, and of the myths associated with them.